![]() ![]() In 1980, Rawls began the "Lou Rawls Parade of Stars Telethon" which benefits the United Negro College Fund. The crowd at that performance may not have known that Rawls was extremely ill with cancer, but he reportedly delivered an electrifying performance to kick off Game Two of the 2005 World Series between the Chicago White Sox and Houston Astros. He would be requested to sing the anthem many times over the next 28 years, and his final performance of it came on October 23, 2005. On the night of September 29, 1977, Rawls performed the national anthem of the United States prior to the Earnie Shavers-Muhammad Ali title fight at Madison Square Garden. In 1982, Rawls received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Other releases in the 1970s included the classic album Sit Down And Talk To Me. Subsequent albums, such as 1977's When You've Heard Lou, You've Heard It All yielded such hit singles as "Lady Love". The album produced his most successful single, "You'll Never Find Another Love Like Mine", which topped the R&B and Adult Contemporary charts and went to number two on the pop side, becoming Rawls' only certified million-selling single in the process. In 1969, the singer was co-host of NBC's summer replacement series for the Dean Martin Show along with Martin's daughter, singer Gail Martin.Īfter leaving Capitol in 1971, Rawls joined MGM, at which juncture he released his Grammy-winning single "Natural Man." He had a brief stint with Bell Records in 1974, where he recorded a cover of Hall & Oates' "She's Gone." In 1976, Rawls signed with Philadelphia International Records, where he had his greatest album success with the million-selling All Things in Time. In 1967 Rawls won his first Grammy Award for Best R&B Vocal Performance, for the single "Dead End Street." The album contained his first R&B #1 single, "Love Is a Hurtin' Thing". Though his 1966 album Live! went gold, Rawls would not have a star-making hit until he made a proper soul album, appropriately named Soulin', later that same year. On August 21, 1966, he opened for The Beatles at Crosley Field in Cincinnati. I'd Rather Drink Muddy Water), a jazz album. Rawls' first Capitol solo release was Stormy Monday (a.k.a. He was signed to Capitol Records in 1962, the same year he sang the soulful background vocals on the Sam Cooke recording of "Bring it on Home to Me." Rawls himself charted with a cover of the song in 1970 (with the title shortened to "Bring It On Home"). Rawls considered the event to be life-changing.Īlongside Dick Clark as master of ceremonies, Rawls was recovered enough by 1959 to be able to perform at the Hollywood Bowl. It took him months to regain his memory, and a year to fully recuperate. Rawls was pronounced dead before arriving at the hospital, where he stayed in a coma for five and a half days. In 1958, while touring the South with the Travelers and Sam Cooke, Rawls was in a serious car crash. He left the "All-Americans" three years later as a sergeant, and hooked up with The Pilgrim Travelers as he traveled to Los Angeles. Army as a paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne Division. Rawls was soon recruited by the Chosen Gospel Singers and himself moved to Los Angeles, where he subsequently joined the Pilgrim TravelersĪfter graduating from Chicago's Dunbar Vocational Career Academy, Rawls enlisted in the U.S. In 1951, Rawls replaced Cooke in the Highway QC's after Cooke departed to join The Soul Stirrers in Los Angeles. He was a high school classmate of music giant Sam Cooke, and they sang together in the Teenage Kings of Harmony, a '50s gospel group.Īfter graduating from Chicago's Dunbar Vocational High School, he sang briefly with Cooke in the Teenage Kings of Harmony, a local gospel group, and then with the Holy Wonders. Lou Rawls, who learned of gospel music through his grandmother in Chicago, became a successful singer, primarily from the 1950s through the 1980s. He had been called "The Funkiest Man Alive". He was known for his smooth vocal style: Frank Sinatra once said that Rawls had "the classiest singing and silkiest chops in the singing game".Rawls released more than 70 albums, sold more than 40 million records, appeared as an actor in motion pictures and on television, and voiced-over many cartoons. Read Full Bio Louis Allen "Lou" Rawls (born in Chicago, Illinois, USA on 1 December 1933 – 6 January 2006) was an American soul music, jazz, and blues singer. Louis Allen "Lou" Rawls (born in Chicago, Illinois, USA on 1 December 1933 – 6 January 2006) was an American soul music, jazz, and blues singer.
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